The Big Apple, The Five Boroughs, The Empire City, The Center of the Universe, Gotham, The City That Never Sleeps, or just ‘THE City’. They all refer to one place, the home of Madison Square Garden, Central Park, the Barclays Center, the Statue of Liberty, Radio City Music Hall, Coney Island, Times Square, Yankee Stadium, the World Trade Center, and last but not least, Arthur Ashe Stadium, home of the US Open.

The final Grand Slam of 2016 begins this Monday, August 29th, at 11:00am EDT. We have a mix of aging veterans, fresh faces, and those who are peaking & currently in the prime of their careers, all doing battle on the world famous hard courts in Flushing, Queens, New York, USA.

On Day 1 of this year’s U.S. Open, we have quite a few interesting matches slated for our viewing pleasure. These are just two matches that had intriguing storylines from the summer of hard court play, both at the tournaments in the US Open Hard Court Swing, and the 2016 Summer Olympics down in Rio…

Jack Sock vs. Taylor Fritz

Twenty-sixth ranked Jack Sock is returned from Rio with some new hardware for the trophy case, including a gold medal, that he won with mixed doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The ATP rewarded Sock with a tough matchup against fellow American Taylor Fritz for all of his trouble. Fritz looks like a star on the rise, at this early point in his career. The young American has catapulted himself up the rankings in the past 12 months, landing in the 53rd spot ahead of his match against Jack Sock. Fritz is the highest ranked teenager on the ATP tour. The last time the two Americans met, at the Australian Open in January, it was a crazy back & forth five-setter, which Sock rallied from behind to win (6-4, 3-6, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4). Both players have had their ups-and-downs this season. While Fritz has risen up in the rankings, he lost in the 1st round at the French Open, Wimbledon, Toronto, and Cincinnati. He has not yet proven that he can handle the pressure of the season’s biggest tournaments. On the other hand, Sock hasn’t been past the third round of a slam all season, but he triumphed at the 2016 Summer Olympics by winning a Men’s Doubles Bronze Medal, and a Mixed Doubles Gold Medal, as I mentioned above. Like their last match in January, I expect this to be another wild one, with Sock’s newly found confidence being the deciding factor.

Monica Puig vs. Saisai Zheng

Olympic gold medalist, Monica Puig, takes on the 22 year old Chinese up-and-comer Saisai Zheng, who is currently peaking at her highest career ranking of 60th in the world. Puerto Rico’s Puig, who became the 32nd seed in the tournament, after Sloane Stephens withdrew due to injury last week, is looking to build on her success in Rio. Puig has been playing some amazing tennis, especially on hard courts this summer. It will be interesting to see if all of that tennis over the past two months actually burnt her out, or if she’ll be able to maintain that killer form that won her Puerto Rico’s only gold medal of the 2016 Olympic Games. This match will be played on the old Grandstand (not to be confused with the new grandstand), which will be getting it’s swan song in 2016, after hosting what was thought to be it’s final match last year. The old grandstand, which will be demolished after this year’s tournament, was only going to be used as a practice court in it’s final year. But due to problems with the playing surface on Court 10, tournament organizers decided that it made sense to use the old grandstand as a TV Court for one more year. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the U.S. Open grounds, the Grandstand is the third-largest stadium at the U.S. Open, behind Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong Stadium, respectively. The new venue, which was built this year to replace the old grandstand, seats more than 8,000 people, an increase of over 2,000 seats. New York, which is home to many Puerto Rican (with over 1.2 million living in the five boroughs) immigrants, should be out in full force Monday afternoon to cheer on Monica Puig after her spectacular performance in Rio. She should be treated much like a native New Yorker, this afternoon, and that will be fun to see. I give the edge to Puig in this match, not only with the crowd support, but due to her momentum this summer.